diff --git a/readthedocs/core/static-src/core/js/doc-embed/footer.js b/readthedocs/core/static-src/core/js/doc-embed/footer.js
index 6cd7dfe5783..ff11ef617f6 100644
--- a/readthedocs/core/static-src/core/js/doc-embed/footer.js
+++ b/readthedocs/core/static-src/core/js/doc-embed/footer.js
@@ -62,9 +62,17 @@ function init() {
         get_data['subproject'] = true;
     }
 
+    // Check for new logic around proxying requests.
+    // ``proxied_api_host`` won't exist on existing built docs,
+    // so default to ``api_host`` in those cases
+    var real_api_host = rtd.api_host;
+    if ("proxied_api_host" in rtd) {
+        real_api_host = rtd.proxied_api_host;
+    }
+
     // Get footer HTML from API and inject it into the page.
     $.ajax({
-        url: rtd.proxied_api_host + "/api/v2/footer_html/",
+        url: real_api_host + "/api/v2/footer_html/",
         crossDomain: true,
         xhrFields: {
             withCredentials: true,
diff --git a/readthedocs/core/static-src/core/js/doc-embed/rtd-data.js b/readthedocs/core/static-src/core/js/doc-embed/rtd-data.js
index 24a7216e255..97dd26170b9 100644
--- a/readthedocs/core/static-src/core/js/doc-embed/rtd-data.js
+++ b/readthedocs/core/static-src/core/js/doc-embed/rtd-data.js
@@ -53,7 +53,6 @@ function get() {
 
     var defaults = {
         api_host: 'https://readthedocs.org',
-        proxied_api_host: 'https://readthedocs.org',
         ad_free: false,
     };